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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Jackson County: Second-Highest Rate of Telecommuting in the Nation

According to the American Community Survey (ACS), Jackson County (also known as the Medford metropolitan area or MSA) had the second-greatest share of home-based workers among all MSAs in 2010. Home-based workers are defined as those that usually work from home. In Medford, 8.4 percent of the workforce reported telecommuting in 2010. The Boulder (Colorado) MSA took first place in the rankings, with 10.9 percent of its workforce working from home in 2010. Minnesota was the only state that could boast having two MSAs on the top 10 list: Mankato-North Mankato ranked sixth highest, and St. Cloud took eighth place.

Nationally, the percentage of workers who worked the majority of the workweek at home increased from 3.6 percent to 4.3 percent of the population between 2005 and 2010, according to the ACS.

Looking at Oregon, all six metropolitan areas outpaced the U.S. in the share of telecommuters in the workforce. After Medford, Corvallis had the second-highest share of home workers in 2010 at 6.8 percent. Bend saw the largest growth in its share of telecommuters between 2005 and 2010, with an increase from 4.4 percent of home workers to 6.6 percent. Salem posted the smallest share of those usually working from home, at 5.2 percent in 2010.

These data are taken from a Census Bureau report, "Home-Based Workers in the United States: 2010", which summarizes the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of people that work from home.Any guesses as to why the Medford MSA had one of the highest telecommuting rates in the nation in 2010, or why the Bend MSA's rate saw the most growth between 2005 and 2010?Share your thoughts in the comments section of this post, or on Twitter: @OREmployment

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